GSBUG Hardware Info SIG May 8, 2003

2 GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Agenda – May 8, :00 – 7:05 Administration 7:05 – 8:15 Featured Topic – System RAM plus Motherboard Features Beyond Core Logic (Chipsets): 2003 Update 8:15 – 8:30 Hardware News 8:30 – 8:55 Random Access (Q&A) 8:55 – 9:00 Recap, Preview, and Close

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Administration Welcome! Please Sign In. What the SIG is…and is not. Is – an information resource for computer users and potential computer users Is NOT – a way to get your computer built or repaired (contact the GSBUG Daytime Hardware SIG) Log – Random Access/Q&A (First Come…)

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Administration (continued): Presentation materials will be posted at: Prior presentation materials are also posted.

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG System RAM: 2003 Update “System RAM” – the off-processor (off-processor- module), random access memory (RAM) used to store instructions and data. “DRAM” – dynamic RAM (only retains data when power is applied/refreshed) Primary types: SDRAM (synchronous DRAM) RDRAM (Rambus DRAM) or DRDRAM (Direct Rambus DRAM)

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG System RAM: 2003 Update (continued) CAS Latency (CL) – definition per Crucial Technology (division of Micron): “The amount of time in nanoseconds (often measured in clock cycles) between a request to read the memory, and when it is actually output. SDRAMs are typically referred to as CL 2 or CL 3, with CL 2 parts being faster.” Today, frequently also CL 2.5 Unbuffered vs Registered vs Registered ECC – consult your motherboard manual for what you need. For the curious, see

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG System RAM: 2003 Update (continued) SDRAM All types have a 64-bit wide data path SDR (single data rate) SDRAM PC100 (seldom seen today) - 100MHz PC133 (used with older desktops & servers) - 133MHz Supported by all the current SDR SDRAM chipsets 168-pin DIMM (dual in-line memory module)

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG System RAM: 2003 Update (continued) SDRAM (continued) DDR (double data rate) SDRAM PC1600 (DDR200) - 100/200MHz PC2100 (DDR266) - 133/266MHz PC2700 (DDR333) - 166/333MHz PC3200 (DDR400) - 200/400MHz Requires corresponding chipset support – see last presentation (on Core Logic/Chipsets); varies by chipset 184-pin DIMM

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG System RAM: 2003 Update (continued) RDRAM 16-bit wide data path Two speed grades (current): PC MHz PC MHz PC1200 (1200MHz) announced 184-pin RIMMs (Rambus In-Line Memory Modules) Requires “Continuity RIMM (CRIMM)” in empty sockets

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG System RAM: 2003 Update (continued) RDRAM (continued) Compatible chipsets – currently only Intel 850, 850E and 860, SiS R658 (SiS R659 announced) Installed in pairs (dual channel) NOW priced at roughly 2x the cost of quality DDR400 Performance – depending on the configuration and application, may be faster than other forms of DRAM

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG System RAM: 2003 Update (continued) Memory bandwidth: pipe width (in bytes) x speed (in MHz) x number of channels = memory bandwidth (in GB/sec) “speed” is “effective speed”; e.g., 100MHz SDR, 200MHz DDR (both on a 100MHz clock) Example: PC2100 DDR SDRAM 8 bytes x 266MHz (133MHz DDR) x 1 channel = 2128MB/sec (2.1GB/sec)

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG System RAM: 2003 Update (continued) Memory bandwidth (continued): Current system memory product implementations: PC100 SDR SDRAM0.8GB/sec PC133 SDR SDRAM1.06GB/sec PC1600 DDR SDRAM (DDR200)1.6GB/sec PC2100 DDR SDRAM (DDR266)2.1GB/sec PC2700 DDR SDRAM (DDR333)2.7GB/sec PC3200 DDR SDRAM (DDR400)3.2GB/sec PC800 RDRAM (dual channel)3.2GB/sec [PC800 RDRAM = 2 bytes x 800MHz x 2 channels]

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG System RAM: 2003 Update (continued) Memory bandwidth (continued): Current system memory product implementations (cont.): PC2100 DDR SDRAM (DDR266, dual channel)4.3GB/sec PC1066 RDRAM (dual channel)4.3GB/sec PC3200 DDR SDRAM (DDR400, dual channel)6.4GB/sec Coming system memory product implementations: “Quad channel” PC1200 RDRAM (Fall ’03) 9.6GB/sec

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG System RAM: 2003 Update (continued) Major Memory (Chip) Manufacturers Elpida (Japan) Hynix (Korea) Infineon (Germany) Micron (USA) Mosel Vitelic/ProMOS (Taiwan) Nanya (Taiwan) Samsung (Korea) Winbond (Taiwan) All

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Other Motherboard Features: 2003 Update Processor Sockets AMD Socket A (462-pin) – supports Athlon, Athlon XP, Duron, and Athlon MP Socket 940 – supports Opteron Intel Socket 370 – supports Celeron (P3 core) and Pentium III S Socket 423 – supports 423-pin Pentium 4 (earliest) Socket 478 – supports 478-pin Celeron (P4 core) & P4 (latest) Socket 603/604 – supports Xeon and Xeon MP VIA Socket 370 – supports C3

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Other Motherboard Features: 2003 Upd (cont.) “ Slots” AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) 32-bits wide, capable (depending on the AGP spec) of 66MHz(1X) to 533MHz(8X) 264MB/sec (1X) to 2.1GB/sec (8X) transfer rate Video cards only Signaling voltage varies by spec – 1.5V (AGP 2.0, AGP 1X-4X), 0.8V (AGP 3.0, AGP 4X-8X); both use same physical socket Also AGP Pro50 and Pro110 (higher wattage for workstations) Brown connector

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Other Motherboard Features: 2003 Upd (cont.) “Slots” (continued) PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) - typical 32-bits wide, capable of 33MHz (desktop) 132MB/sec transfer rate (desktop) Used for HDCs, sound cards, modems, NICs, and older video cards; various specialty adapters (USB 2.0, IEEE-1394, second parallel, etc.) White connector

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Other Motherboard Features: 2003 Upd (cont.) “Slots” (continued) PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) - other 32-bits wide, 66MHz (desktop/server); 64-bit wide, 33 or 66MHz (workstations and servers) Up to 528MB/sec Used for HDCs, NICs, and some specialty adapters PCI-X (some workstations and most servers) Spec bit wide, up to 133MHz (up to 1.06GB/sec) Spec bit wide, up to 533MHz (up to 4.3GB/sec) PCI Express – coming in 2004 (possibly late 2003) 0.8V, 2.5GHz, up to 16GB/sec transfer – to replace AGP 8X +

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Other Motherboard Features: 2003 Upd (cont.) “Ports” Serial (1 or 2 ports typ) Parallel (ECP/EPP; 1 port typ) PS/2 (2 ports – keyboard and mouse)

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Other Motherboard Features: 2003 Upd (cont.) “Ports” (continued) USB (Universal Serial Bus) – chipset dependant Three speeds: Low speed = 1.5Mb/sec (.187MB/sec) – USB 1.1 Full speed = 12Mb/sec (1.5MB/sec) – USB 1.1 High speed = 480 Mb/sec (60MB/sec) – USB 2.0 Attach up to 127 devices – including mice, keyboards, cameras, printers, ZIPs, some HDDs, etc. Number of ports varies – min 2. Combos of USB 1.1 and 2.0. For “outside the box” devices

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Other Motherboard Features: 2003 Upd (cont.) “Ports” (continued) Audio (sound “card”, down) – line in, line out, mic, joy stick (MIDI port), plus Video (for video “card”, down) NIC (network interface “card”, down) Typically “10/100” (Mb/sec) IEEE 1394a (“FireWire”/Apple, “iLink”/Sony) Today provides a maximum 400Mb/sec (50MB/sec) transfer rate ( ). For “outside the box” devices. Typically used to connect digital video cameras, HDDs.

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Other Motherboard Features: 2003 Upd (cont.) Other Interfaces, Misc. Internal data cable connectors – floppy, IDE, SCSI USB and IEEE-1394 header(s) IrDA (infrared) header CD-ROM (audio interface) – 1 or 2 Wake-on-LAN Modem (audio for voice modem) Fan headers

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Other Motherboard Features: 2003 Upd (cont.) Other Interfaces, Misc. (continued) Panel lights (power, HDD activity, sleep) & switches (power, reset, sleep) Jumpers and/or DIP switches (CMOS clear/flash, CPU multiplier, CPU voltage, bus speeds, keyboard power-on, suspend-to-RAM, etc.) Power (ATX, ATX12V, WTX, proprietary) Show-and-Tell

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Hardware News Processors AMD formally released the AMD Opteron – first x86-64 (AMD64) processor; models 240 (1.4GHz), 242 (1.6GHz), and 244 (1.8GHz) for 1-way and 2-way servers and workstations; 128K L1 cache; 1MB exclusive L2 cache; integrated dual-channel memory controller (5.3GB/sec/CPU using PC2700/DDR333 SDRAM); able to directly address up to 1 terabyte of RAM; FSB = processor clock speed; three 16x16-bit HyperTransport links (6.4GB/sec per link);.13 micron SOI (silicon on insulator) technology; supports SSE2; 940-pin package with heat spreader

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Hardware News (continued) Processors (continued) AMD released the Athlon MP – 2.133GHz, Barton core, 512K L2, 266MHz FSB (no faster chipset support) Core Logic (chipsets) AMD formally released the AMD-8131 PCI-X Tunnel, AMD-8151 AGP Graphics Tunnel (AGP 8X), and the AMD-8111 I/O Hub support chipset for its just-released AMD Opteron processor NVIDIA announced the nForce3 Pro chipset for AMD Opteron workstations – single chip; AGP 8X; IDE RAID support (both PATA and SATA); integrated NIC

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Hardware News (continued) Core Logic (chipsets) (continued) SiS announced the SiS655 for Intel Pentium 4 – a dual channel memory controller version of the SiS648; supports up to DDR333 VIA announced the UniChrome KM400 chipset (VT8378 Northbridge w/ VT8235CE or VT8237 Southbridge) for AMD Athlon – includes integrated UniChrome 2D/3D graphics processor (AGP 8X); supports DDR400 SDRAM; SATA RAID support w/ VT8237 VIA announced the K8T400M chipset for AMD Opteron – AGP 8X “Northbridge” with high-speed interface to the VT8237 Southbridge

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Hardware News (continued) System RAM – nothing new Motherboards MSI released the K8D Master (MS-9131) server motherboard for dual AMD Opteron processors. ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI and several others introduce Intel 875P-chipset-based Pentium 4 motherboards. Graphics Processors & Cards 3Dlabs announced the Wildcat VP880 Pro workstation video card – 256MB RAM, AGP 8X, ESP of $499.

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Hardware News (continued) Graphics Processors & Cards (continued) Matrox announced the Millennium P-series of video cards based on the Parhelia-LX processor – initially released the Millennium P650 ( 2 head) and Millennium P750 (3 head) cards. Both have 64MB RAM and are AGP 8X. Intended for video editing. These are low priced derivatives of the Parhelia. Hard Drives – nothing new

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Hardware News (continued) Hard Drive Controllers Promise released the “FastTrak S150 TX4” SATA RAID card – supports 4 drives, RAID 0, 1, and 0+1. Other Drives Plextor released the PlexWriter Premium 52x32x52 CD- RW (ATAPI) w/ GigaRec (store up to 1GB data on 700MB media – not readable on other drives).

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Hardware News (continued) Sound processors & cards – nothing new Modems & NICs – nothing new Chassis & power supplies – nothing new

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Random Access

May 8, GSBUG Hardware Info SIG Recap, Preview, and Close Recap Preview Featured Topic for June 12, 2003 – Hard Drives and “Floppies”: 2003 Update Close (please police up the area)